OPEN LINK NIGHT # 13

Welcome, all. In the spirit of the approaching holiday (Halloween, All Hallows Eve, All Saints Eve, etc) this is our 13^th Open Link Night. It seems impossible that we’ve been doing this for thirteen weeks now, yet time is supposed to fly when you’re having fun,  and this is living proof.

So here we are, thanks in large part to the wonderful community of poets who are making this pub their Tuesday evening watering hole. A huge thank you to everyone who’s standing in line to place their order with us tonight. Even though so many come to talk and share, no one here ever has to shout to be heard, though it may take us awhile to get through the crowd to your table without spilling the whole tray, especially if I happen to be the waitress. My name is Joy Ann Jones, known to most of you as hedgewitch, and I’ll be hosting OLN 13 tonight for your poetic enjoyment.

There are boatloads of superstitions about the number 13. It even has its own phobia: Triskaidekaphobia, to be exact, and fear of Friday the 13^th is known as paraskevidekatriaphobia. (I think I now have an induced phobia–of words containing more than ten syllables.) The irrational fear of this number has caused building managers to skip it when assigning floor numbers, and people from all walks of life and various cultures to attribute all kinds of bad luck to it in all kinds of associations. Judas Iscariot is said to have been the thirteenth disciple at the Last Supper (though no order is given in scripture) and in Norse mythology, Loki was the thirteenth god who slew Baldur the Blessed and began the progression towards the end of the world. Some believe that because on Friday, 13 October 1307, Philip IV of France wrote the order that began the dissolution of the powerful Knights Templar, later the Freemasons, that day afterward became identified as particularly unlucky.

Or maybe people just like to scare themselves, witness the popularity of movies like Friday the 13^th.

Tonight we’re going to do our part to counter all the superstitions by spending the evening having a blast and sharing some of the best poetry on the web.

There’s no prompt associated with Open Link Night. As the name suggests, it’s open for any topic or subject, style or form you care to address, and you are the one to decide what you’d like to share with us all tonight. So here’s wishing everyone the best of luck at demonstrating that the number 13 can be completely and totally a good thing, and to prove it, I’ll close with a link to one of my favorite Wallace Stevens’ poems, Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird.

If you’re new to the pub, welcome, and here’s the drill:

• Post a poem to your blog,
• Link in the poem you’d like to share (1 per blog, please) by clicking on the Mr.Linky button just below.
• This opens a new screen where you’ll enter your information, and where you also choose links to read. Once you have pasted your poem’s blog url and entered your name, simply click submit.
• Don’t forget to let your readers know where you’re linking up and encourage them to participate by including a link to dVerse in your blog post.
• Visit as many other poems as you like, commenting  as you see fit.
• Spread the word on the poems you enjoy if you’d like. Feel free to tweet and share on the social media of your choice.
• Finally, enjoy! Remember, we are here for each other. Engage your fellow poets, talk, chat, comment, let them know their work is being read, and enjoy the input you also will receive. This is all about community.